Boeing eyes a solution with Google Glass

Do you ever wander what happened to the Google Glass, that amazing looking contraption that was pushed so heavily a few years ago? Though it doesn’t seem to have become the worldwide phenomenon Google was hoping for, many businesses have found important uses for it.

Boeing is a company that manufactures aircraft for airlines and governments around the world, and each of these planes have thousands of wires that make up various electrical systems. In order for all these various wires to be installed properly, thousands of Boeing’s employees spend their days making wire harnesses.

“Wire harnesses are very complex and very dense, and the technicians have to use what are, in essence, roadmaps to find the attachment points and connector pins. There are so many that it can be information overload at times,” states Kyle Tsai, a research and development engineer with Boeing Research and Technology.

Making the tedious, tolerable

This process is incredibly tedious, difficult and time consuming, which has prompted the company to search for a better solution that will allow employees to finish this process in a lesser amount of time, hands-free. Boeing has actually been searching for an alternative for many years. Back in 1995, the company tried augmented reality with a head-worn apparatus named the Navigator 2. However, due to the limited technology during that time and the cost of hardware, Boeing did not find this idea to be a viable solution.

Fortunately, Google Glass has come into existence. With the aid of Google Glass, employees can finally get some valuable assistance. “Now we’re in an era where hardware is no longer the constraint,” says Jason DeStories, another R&D engineer.

Though it’s great that Boeing has found a better way to handle this wire issue, the price point for Google Glass is still pretty high, at $1,500. At this price, Google Glass may remain purely a tool for larger companies or a novelty item for those who can afford to throw money on it. Google Glass 2 is set to be released soon.